Ranking on image search requires both the optimization of images and page elements to promote the ranking of those images in search, as well as optimization of images and image sizes so they load faster and improve page speed. Here's how to do it.

Image Optimization: Size Matters

The key to any coding or design endeavor is to get the most for the least. That is, to get everything you want visually with the least amount of code and the smallest size. Images are no different.

While admittedly I haven't seen a direct correlation (even spurious) between image size and the ranking of images on image search, it is a factor Google uses for page speed which is a factor Google uses for rankings.

To be clear, however, the question isn't about how small you can get your images; it's how small you can get them while maintaining the visual aesthetic. Essentially, Google doesn't want you to change your aesthetic; they want you to ensure that the aesthetic you want loads as quickly as possible.

I can't tell you here how to optimize your images, as this changes with each server and site, but here are some great resources for both testing and automating compression:

Google PageSpeed Insights: This is the page Google themselves reference on their PageSpeed tool related to optimizing images.Website Testing Tools: It's a good (and short) list of some solid image optimization tools on Bryan Eisenberg's site.Google Image Optimization: A blog by Ryan Morben on image optimization with examples.

This is especially important for mobile where Google understands that data is slower and people are more impatient (a bad combination).

Now that you've used image optimization to help increase your page speed and improve your chances at ranking, it's time to look at image optimization from the context of ranking on image search.

Image Optimization: A Picture's Worth

A picture might be worth 1,000 words, but only if it gets seen and only if it will benefit your business to rank for image search.

Let's take for example a lawyer. If you're running a law site is it really going to be a benefit to rank on image search? Or is it more likely that ranking for images is simply going to create an environment where you have to spend your valuable time ensuring others aren't taking them without permission?

On the other side of the coin are sites that generate revenue from impressions (generally ad-based). In this case, any impression is a good impression (more or less) and you'll take traffic where you can get it. In this case it's likely worth the risk of your images being copied in exchange for the traffic.

Assuming you've decided it's beneficial for your site that you rank on image search, there are a number of areas you need to make sure to address. Let's go through some of the major areas.

Unique Images

If you're using stock images, it's unlikely you'll rank on image search. For obvious reasons Google doesn't want to rank multiple copies of the same image any more than they want to rank multiple copies of the same content. If you're using the same image that's been found on a hundred other sites before you, why should yours rank?

This aspect of image optimization can especially hurt online retailers who simply use the product photos sent to them by the manufacturer – the same photo they send everyone who sells their product and has been copied by everyone who reviews it. If you want to rank on image search, use unique photos.

That said, at this time (always important to add that note) Google's Matt Cutts has stated that using stock photos doesn't impact web rankings (though he did seem interested in looking at it as a quality signal thanks to the guy who sent him this question):

Image Names

You need to name your images something right? If you're naming the image for your Samsung Galaxy Nexus product page (in case you went back in time 2 years) why would you name the image wpd858932702.jpg when you could name it samsumg-galaxy-nexus.jpg? And if you need a thumbnail for your image then samsung-galaxy-nexus-tb.jpg would be a good option.

Essentially you want to help Google understand what the content of the image is in any way you can. Will Google know it's the Galaxy Nexus and not the S4 in the person's hand in your image? Probably not (yet) so naming the file appropriately can help steer them in the right direction.

Alt Attributes

We all know the alt attribute is important, but many tend to use them wrong. First and foremost they are used as an accessibility tag. It defines what will appear in place of the image should it not be accessible either by mistake or choice (for example, blind people using screen readers).

The recommended maximum length of alt text is 125 characters. I tend to use as few words as possible to define the image content. Usually 4 to 6 will suffice, but sometimes more are required.

Should you use keywords? I wouldn't recommend doing so specifically, but if you're describing the picture appropriately you'll be using the words that are most appropriate for that image and thus, what it should be ranking for on image search.

Title Tags

Using the title element on an image creates a visual caption when the image is hovered over. There is some debate as to the value of the title tag whereas we know that Google puts weight on the alt tag. That said, it's certainly not going to hurt, it can be used to add additional visual information for your visitors when they hover over an image (and simply because something may not hold weight today, doesn't mean it won't in the future).

Google has said that alt tags should be supplemented with other tags (such as the title tag) when it serves the visitor. So this makes it pass my SEO litmus test. If it may help and won't hurt, do it.

Page Copy

Like everything else they do, Google couldn't make it this easy to rank your images. On top of the image-specific elements they also use the page as a whole to determine the relevancy of your image.

For example, an image from a Pinterest board with no content is less likely to rank than the same image on a full-page review of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus because Google can put the image into the context of the page as a whole and know that it's far more likely to be an authoritative and accurate image than a lone image on a page.

Schema Markup

As the battle wages on for rankings and the standards of SEO rise (even if just that all webmasters know to do the basics like alt tags whereas that wasn't always typical) we need to take every opportunity to push the envelope and provide just a bit more to Google than the person next to you. This is where Schema comes in.

Schema markup is a lot of things, but at its core it's a set of markup that allows you to provide additional information about elements on a page (say, for example, images).

From the location, to the photographer, to the date taken, to additional description text, and much more, you can let the search engines know far more detail about what an image is and even what it's for that was possible prior to its introduction.

With so many possible uses, I can't possibly list them all here and the list would be outdated soon if I did. Fortunately the elements for images are laid out well http here on the Schema.org website. There is an example towards the bottom of that page as to how a simple Schema deployment would look. And if we think of a situation where two sites are virtually tied in how Google would rank their images, if one has Schema and the other does not, which will Google assume has the more relevant image?

Conclusion

Image optimization isn't a quick task. It requires time that could be spent on other things.

You need to carefully weigh the cost-benefit of image optimization and consider what impact it will have on their traffic and if that time could be better spent in other areas. This same statement applies to virtually all Internet marketing and, in fact, all business decisions. It's all about ROI, but if it fits your site traffic model, then good luck and enjoy the journey.

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Google has updated its shopping experience for users in time for the holidays. Now at Google Shopping, users can access new products details and get a better look at the products they’re contemplating to buy – no matter what device they’re on.

Google explained the functionality in its announcement:

“Click on a product to preview details like sizes, colors and description, and find out if it’s available at a nearby local store. If you see an item that’s almost perfect but not quite, click to view 'visually similar' items.”

Google Shopping also has a 360-degree product tour for many of its items to help make the online shopping experience a bit more realistic.

And don’t forget shortlists, Google said, to help you curate the products you’re considering, and fors haring those ideas with family and friends to help them shop better, too.

“Your shortlist now also stays with you at the top of each page while you browse Google Shopping, so you can keep track of items as you go,” Google said in its announcement.

And if you’re curious about what kids products are trending, Google listed the top toy searches on Google Shopping:

Google also noted search interest is showing that some toys you likely remember from your childhood are popular once again this year, including:

My Little PonyBarbie DreamhouseFurbyNinja TurtlesEasy-Bake Oven

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Even government shutdowns can't put a damper on the consumer's plot to shop this holiday season. In fact, the National Retail Federation forecast sales in November and December to increase 3.9 percent from 2012 to $602.1 billion – higher than the 10-year average holiday sales growth of 3.3 percent.

"Overall, retailers are optimistic for the 2013 holiday season, hoping political debates over government spending and the debt ceiling do not erase any economic progress we've already made," said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay in an October report.

This year's holiday retail season shows trends already emerging – like when people will shop, what products they're interested in and what devices they're using to shop with.

When People Are Shopping

With the holiday retail season officially kicking off in about a week, online data shows piqued interest in starting the shopping season as soon as possible. Yahoo reported that earlier this month, queries for major retail events spiked:

The term "Black Friday 2013" is spiking by 1,013 percent this month.The term "Cyber Monday 2013" increased by 735 percent just this past week.Searches for "Black Friday ads" jumped by 351 percent this month.

And certain areas of the United States showed more interest in Black Friday than others. "Most U.S. searches for ‘Black Friday' this month have originated in Omaha, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Columbus, and Buffalo," Yahoo said.

While Black Friday is generating interest, Adobe predicts that 2013's Cyber Monday will be the "biggest online shopping day ever" generating an estimated $2.3 million.

ComScore predictions are aligned with this.

"We also expect that Cyber Monday will once again rank as the top online spending day of the year, as it has been for the past three years," it said in a report.

And because there are fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, it could mean different shopping patterns than years prior. Adobe predicts Thanksgiving Day will emerge as the fastest-growing sales day.

"Thanksgiving will actually be the fastest growing online sales day of the season (up 21 percent over last year) and much of that will be driven by mobile shopping done under the turkey table or while supposedly watching a football game," Adobe said in its report.

What People Are Shopping For

Experian Marketing Services has been tracking trending product searches through data from Hitwise, showing what's on people's wish lists as the holiday season approaches. For tech junkies, it seems Apple-related products are at the top of many people's list, with the iPad Air stealing the No. 1 spot.

For consumers with kids, Experian showed trending toy searches that included "skylanders swap force," "rubber band bracelets," and "crazy cart" (all of which are completely foreign to this author):

Furbies are making a comeback according to data from Yahoo which shows "furby boom" is trending this holiday season with a 194-percent increase in search volume.

Outside of toys and tech, the other hot-ticket items, according to Experian and Yahoo include apparel – boots to be exact. Experian shows Uggs as the No. 1 searched-for item in week ending November 9.

Yahoo data mirrors the boot craze, showing ladies boots are becoming a wanted item during the colder winter months. But not just any boots; brands leading in terms of search volume include:

Armed with the knowledge of what people are searching for, retailers need to know next how people are shopping to cater the experience. Adobe forecast mobile shopping will rise 40 percent this holiday season, according to data from the Adobe Index.

In fact, Adobe predicts the best websites will see nearly 15 percent of sales coming from tablets and 6 percent from smartphones.

"M-commerce has reached a record high percentage of total online spending in three of the last fourth quarters of the fiscal year. We expect this trend to continue into 2013, surpassing the 11.3 percent of total digital commerce spending achieved in Q4 of 2012," comScore said in a report.

Nothing out of the ordinary for the top-visited retail sites for the week ending November 9, courtesy of Experian:

However, when compared to recent data showing which top retailers are providing the best mobile experience, the data isn't matching up. According to The Search Agency's mobile experience scoring system, the top retailers are not always the leading mobile experience providers:

But when it comes to buying all those toys on the most-wanted list, mobile shoppers and Furby enthusiasts will likely have a good experience at Toys "R" Us, which came in second out of the 100 top retail sites examined for mobile.

Apple, however, isn't prepared. Coming in dead last out of 100, Apple's mobile experience is lackluster when measured against factors in The Search Agency's scorecard – even as a leading tech company and producer of this holiday season's most-wanted products.

More than just catering to a mobile device, retailers need be prepared for how mobile shoppers use devices while in the store. An emerging trend amongst mobile device users is "showrooming" – checking out products in store, only to buy online at a later time.

And this year, 63 percent of consumers will likely use a showrooming technique this holiday season, up from 56 percent last year, according to digital marketing firm IgnitionOne:

Google reported earlier this year another trend in mobile shopping; 84 percent of smartphone shoppers surveyed said they used their device to make purchase decisions while in the store.

Adobe reported retailers like Macy's and Target are prepared for the new ways mobile users are shopping by offering special apps that will help shoppers navigate Black Friday deals while in the store this year.

So when it comes to what your consumers are looking for this holiday season, what device they're using and where they're using it, the question is: Are you ready for the biggest retail season of the year?

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Even government shutdowns can't put a damper on the consumer's plot to shop this holiday season. In fact, the National Retail Federation forecast sales in November and December to increase 3.9 percent from 2012 to $602.1 billion – higher than the 10-year average holiday sales growth of 3.3 percent.

"Overall, retailers are optimistic for the 2013 holiday season, hoping political debates over government spending and the debt ceiling do not erase any economic progress we've already made," said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay in an October report.

This year's holiday retail season shows trends already emerging – like when people will shop, what products they're interested in and what devices they're using to shop with.

When People Are Shopping

With the holiday retail season officially kicking off in about a week, online data shows piqued interest in starting the shopping season as soon as possible. Yahoo reported that earlier this month, queries for major retail events spiked:

The term "Black Friday 2013" is spiking by 1,013 percent this month.The term "Cyber Monday 2013" increased by 735 percent just this past week.Searches for "Black Friday ads" jumped by 351 percent this month.

And certain areas of the United States showed more interest in Black Friday than others. "Most U.S. searches for ‘Black Friday' this month have originated in Omaha, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Columbus, and Buffalo," Yahoo said.

While Black Friday is generating interest, Adobe predicts that 2013's Cyber Monday will be the "biggest online shopping day ever" generating an estimated $2.3 million.

ComScore predictions are aligned with this.

"We also expect that Cyber Monday will once again rank as the top online spending day of the year, as it has been for the past three years," it said in a report.

And because there are fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, it could mean different shopping patterns than years prior. Adobe predicts Thanksgiving Day will emerge as the fastest-growing sales day.

"Thanksgiving will actually be the fastest growing online sales day of the season (up 21 percent over last year) and much of that will be driven by mobile shopping done under the turkey table or while supposedly watching a football game," Adobe said in its report.

What People Are Shopping For

Experian Marketing Services has been tracking trending product searches through data from Hitwise, showing what's on people's wish lists as the holiday season approaches. For tech junkies, it seems Apple-related products are at the top of many people's list, with the iPad Air stealing the No. 1 spot.

For consumers with kids, Experian showed trending toy searches that included "skylanders swap force," "rubber band bracelets," and "crazy cart" (all of which are completely foreign to this author):

Furbies are making a comeback according to data from Yahoo which shows "furby boom" is trending this holiday season with a 194-percent increase in search volume.

Outside of toys and tech, the other hot-ticket items, according to Experian and Yahoo include apparel – boots to be exact. Experian shows Uggs as the No. 1 searched-for item in week ending November 9.

Yahoo data mirrors the boot craze, showing ladies boots are becoming a wanted item during the colder winter months. But not just any boots; brands leading in terms of search volume include:

Armed with the knowledge of what people are searching for, retailers need to know next how people are shopping to cater the experience. Adobe forecast mobile shopping will rise 40 percent this holiday season, according to data from the Adobe Index.

In fact, Adobe predicts the best websites will see nearly 15 percent of sales coming from tablets and 6 percent from smartphones.

"M-commerce has reached a record high percentage of total online spending in three of the last fourth quarters of the fiscal year. We expect this trend to continue into 2013, surpassing the 11.3 percent of total digital commerce spending achieved in Q4 of 2012," comScore said in a report.

Nothing out of the ordinary for the top-visited retail sites for the week ending November 9, courtesy of Experian:

However, when compared to recent data showing which top retailers are providing the best mobile experience, the data isn't matching up. According to The Search Agency's mobile experience scoring system, the top retailers are not always the leading mobile experience providers:

But when it comes to buying all those toys on the most-wanted list, mobile shoppers and Furby enthusiasts will likely have a good experience at Toys "R" Us, which came in second out of the 100 top retail sites examined for mobile.

Apple, however, isn't prepared. Coming in dead last out of 100, Apple's mobile experience is lackluster when measured against factors in The Search Agency's scorecard – even as a leading tech company and producer of this holiday season's most-wanted products.

More than just catering to a mobile device, retailers need be prepared for how mobile shoppers use devices while in the store. An emerging trend amongst mobile device users is "showrooming" – checking out products in store, only to buy online at a later time.

And this year, 63 percent of consumers will likely use a showrooming technique this holiday season, up from 56 percent last year, according to digital marketing firm IgnitionOne:

Google reported earlier this year another trend in mobile shopping; 84 percent of smartphone shoppers surveyed said they used their device to make purchase decisions while in the store.

Adobe reported retailers like Macy's and Target are prepared for the new ways mobile users are shopping by offering special apps that will help shoppers navigate Black Friday deals while in the store this year.

So when it comes to what your consumers are looking for this holiday season, what device they're using and where they're using it, the question is: Are you ready for the biggest retail season of the year?

Introducing... ClickZ Live!SES Conference & Expo has merged with ClickZ to bring you ClickZ Live! The new global conference series takes on the identity of the industry's premier digital marketing publication, ClickZ.com, and kicks off March 31-April 3 in New York City. Join the industry's leading tech-advertisers in the advertising capital of the world! Find out more ��*Super Saver Rates expire Jan 24.

As Search Engine Watch first reported in August, Bing has been enhancing shopping results. Over the three months since, Bing has completely integrated shopping results directly into main the main experience. Now, as of yesterday, Bing has retired the notion of a "dedicated shopping" experience when you search for products.

The move, according to Bing's announcement, "is to help you search less and do more."

Search continues moves toward user intent, not just keywords. Bing has been using catch phrases such as "Bing and Decide" and "Bing is for doing" for quite some time now. By removing the shopping search option, Bing is taking that next step to try to understand your intent. Using Bing Snapshot technology, certain search queries will return snapshots of various products in the right side column.

Clicking on these products will produce a different result set of vendor sites that sell that particular product. Those results will also contain a carousel of similar products or models directly under the search box. Reviews, product specs are also included as snapshot information in the sidebar, as are prices from various vendors who purchase Bing ads.

While most people are no longer seeing Bing Shopping, the product experience is still rolling out for all users as Bing continues to improve the logic, and hopefully the number of queries for which product comparisons appear.

Introducing... ClickZ Live!SES Conference & Expo has merged with ClickZ to bring you ClickZ Live! The new global conference series takes on the identity of the industry's premier digital marketing publication, ClickZ.com, and kicks off March 31-April 3 in New York City. Join the industry's leading tech-advertisers in the advertising capital of the world! Find out more ��*Super Saver Rates expire Jan 24.

As Search Engine Watch first reported in August, Bing has been enhancing shopping results. Over the three months since, Bing has completely integrated shopping results directly into main the main experience. Now, as of yesterday, Bing has retired the notion of a "dedicated shopping" experience when you search for products.

The move, according to Bing's announcement, "is to help you search less and do more."

Search continues moves toward user intent, not just keywords. Bing has been using catch phrases such as "Bing and Decide" and "Bing is for doing" for quite some time now. By removing the shopping search option, Bing is taking that next step to try to understand your intent. Using Bing Snapshot technology, certain search queries will return snapshots of various products in the right side column.

Clicking on these products will produce a different result set of vendor sites that sell that particular product. Those results will also contain a carousel of similar products or models directly under the search box. Reviews, product specs are also included as snapshot information in the sidebar, as are prices from various vendors who purchase Bing ads.

While most people are no longer seeing Bing Shopping, the product experience is still rolling out for all users as Bing continues to improve the logic, and hopefully the number of queries for which product comparisons appear.

Introducing... ClickZ Live!SES Conference & Expo has merged with ClickZ to bring you ClickZ Live! The new global conference series takes on the identity of the industry's premier digital marketing publication, ClickZ.com, and kicks off March 31-April 3 in New York City. Join the industry's leading tech-advertisers in the advertising capital of the world! Find out more ��*Super Saver Rates expire Jan 24.

Removing a manual unnatural links penalty can be extremely difficult. If you've gone through the process then you're likely familiar with the mixture of excitement and fear that comes with seeing "All Messages (1)" in Google Webmaster Tools after filing for reconsideration.

Will you see "Manual Spam Action Revoked"? Or will it be the dreaded, "Links to your site violate Google's quality guidelines"? Getting the latter message means that your reconsideration request has not been successful and that more work needs to be done in order to lift your penalty.

Unfortunately, Google doesn't give much direction when it comes to understanding why a reconsideration request was denied. They may give some examples of unnatural links, but not always. Sometimes absolutely no explanation is given as the reason for failure.

One thing I do on a regular basis is review the reconsideration requests for businesses that haven't been able to lift their penalty. Here are eight of the most common reasons why reconsideration requests have failed.

1. Not Enough Unnatural Links Addressed

This is, by far, the most common reason for a reconsideration to fail. It isn't enough to go after just the worst links, or even most of the unnatural links. In most cases, Google wants to see that you have identified close to 100 percent of your unnatural links.

Site owners in forums often proclaim things like, "I removed 3,000 links and Google still failed me!" In one of these cases, the site owner had indeed removed 3,000 links all from really low quality directories, bookmarks and comment spam. However, they still had hundreds of articles in existence that contained unnatural links to their site. The site owners felt that those links were natural because the sites who published the articles made an editorial choice to publish them. But really, it was a linking scheme. That site won't get their penalty removed until those links are addressed.

(As an aside, "addressed" doesn't necessarily mean, "removed". What Google wants to see is that you have identified which links are unnatural and that you have made a thorough attempt to get the links removed. And if you couldn't remove the links, then you have disavowed the links.)

If your reconsideration requests are repeatedly failing, it's worthwhile to have someone take an objective look at your link profile. There may be links that you feel are natural, but Google does not.

Sometimes, posting a question in the Google Webmaster Forumscan help. The volunteers there will give their opinion on your backlink profile. However, be warned that sometimes the responses you get in this forum can be a little snarky, and there is no guarantee that the answers will be completely correct. That said, there is a possibility that you can uncover links that you felt were natural, but really aren't natural in Google's eyes.

2. Not Enough Effort Was Made to Remove Unnatural Links

If you have a manual unnatural links penalty, it isn't enough to just disavow your bad links. Google needs to see that you have thoroughly tried to remove as many unnatural links as possible.

If you have the login credentials to directories and articles where you have submitted links, then log in and remove them. Tell Google in your reconsideration request that you have done this. It may even help to create a Google Doc spreadsheet that lists each domain and the date on which you went in and removed your links or deleted your account and also indicates the ones where you were unable to log in or had other difficulties.

If you don't control the pages where your links reside, then you need to do all you can to contact the site owner. Show Google in your spreadsheet that you have collected any email addresses you could find, the whois email address and also the URL of any contact form, Twitter page or Facebook page. Then, document the date on which you tried this form of contact.

I usually like to add additional documentation about my communications with site owners as well by entering things into my spreadsheet like, "Site owner said they will remove links but still has not been done - re-emailed," or "Site owner wanted $100 to remove a link - will disavow". This shows Google that you truly did spend time contacting webmasters.

I used to advocate showing Google a copy of every email that we sent. However, John Mueller recently said in a hangout that this was probably not necessary.

3. Not Enough Explanation

When writing a reconsideration request, you don't need to write a novel, but you do need to write enough to convince the webspam team that you have been working hard to remove as many unnatural links as possible. Hereis a Webmaster Forum thread where John Mueller says the following to a site owner who has failed at reconsideration:

One of the things we noticed was that your last reconsideration request was a bit short & basic, which when taken on its own, gave the team a wrong impression about the steps you've taken to resolve this issue on the web….My general recommendation for reconsideration requests would be to make sure that you're really submitting the right & relevant information there, so that it's clear to those processing the request what steps you've taken to resolve this issue: linking to the doc you mentioned is great, linking to a forum discussion is great, providing more context in the message directly is also very useful.

For more information on how to write a thorough reconsideration request, see "Google Reconsideration Request Guidelines & Example".

4. Improperly Formatted Disavow File

In many cases, Google will tell you, when you submit your disavow file, whether there is an error in your file.

In the past, if you had submitted a .rtf file instead of a .txt, or if you had forgotten to use the domain: operator when you wanted to disavow an entire domain, you would receive no indication from Google that your disavow file would not work.

Now, after you upload the file, if there is a problem with its syntax, you will receive an error message.

Even with these warnings, it is still possible for a reconsideration request to fail because of a disavow file problem. In one situation, a reconsideration failed and Google gave example links that the site owner had attempted to remove, and when unsuccessful, had put in their disavow file. Or so they thought.

It turned out that the disavow file was missing every domain that started with the letters K to Z. This was most likely because of a glitch in Google Docs that sometimes causes only 200 cells of a spreadsheet to be pasted when using the copy and paste function. Only the domains starting with 0-J were transferred to the disavow which meant that a huge number of domains the disavow file were missing.

Always double check that your disavow file contains all of the domains and URLs you want to disavow!

5. Disavowing on the URL Level Instead of the Domain Level

I almost always disavow links on the domain level. The rare exception would be for sites where we had an unnatural link from one page but I felt we could get natural links from other pages on this site. This doesn't happen very often.

Here's an example that explains why it's important to disavow on the domain level. Let's say I have a paid link embedded in a blog post of a site that is based on the WordPress CMS and that link exists on the following URL:

http://www.example.com/myarticle.html

The best way to disavow this link would be to include the following in my disavow file:

domain:example.com

But, let's say that I included the following in my disavow instead:

http://www.example.com/myarticle.html

Because this site is WordPress based, there is a good chance that the following links pointing to my site also exist:

Similarly, some sites may have the link available on a www page, a non www page and also an https:// page.

Disavowing on the domain level will take care of all of these links.

6. Google Docs Wasn't Used for Communicating Evidence

In this video, Google's Matt Cutts explains that the webspam team is reluctant to open up external files for fear of getting malware. He recommends that you keep everything in Google Docs.

It isn't a good idea to use an Excel spreadsheet to document your evidence. You can upload an Excel spreadsheet to Google Docs, but I do find that often these files are difficult to process through when viewed in Google Docs. If possible, it really is best to show your information in a Google Spreadsheet.

I have also seen failed reconsiderations where site owners didn't document their attempts at contacting site owners well. Instead, they gave the password to their Gmail account and invited the webspam team to view their Sent folder. It's very unlikely that a Google employee is going to do this, mostly for privacy reasons.

Instead, document everything really well in a Google Doc Spreadsheet. Include the email address, whois address, contact form URL, etc. that you used and the date on which you tried that form of contact. Make it as simple as possible for a webspam team employee to see your efforts.

7. Incorrect Google Docs Share Settings

If you're sharing a Google Doc with the webspam team, be sure that the share settings are not set to "Private", which is the default setting. I usually change it to "Anyone with the link can view".

In this Webmaster Forum post, a Google employee is describing possible reasons for this site owner's failure to get reconsidered. One of the things he says is:

Documentation is really good and can help when reviewing your site for reconsideration. Make sure that when you send in documentation that it's accessible, though. It looks like https://docs.google.com/file/….. hasn't been shared properly.

How tragic! Months of work can go down the drain if the webspam team can't see your documentation.

You would think that Google would simply let you know that they can't see your documentation. Unfortunately, it appears that they only have a limited number of canned responses they can give. It would be great if Google could add an additional canned response that told a site owner that there was a problem viewing their documentation and perhaps gave a checklist of possible problem areas.

8. Spreadsheet is Filtered

This is very similar to the previous point. If you have your Google Spreadsheet share settings set so that anyone with the link can view the document, this setting does not allow the viewer to use the filter function.

I have reviewed some failed requests where the site owner had accidentally left the spreadsheet filtered so that they could just see the links they were successful in removing, or in another case, for some reason they were looking at just their directory links. This means that webspam team member who saw your request couldn't see the rest of the spreadsheet.

Unless you have been really successful at removing links, if the webspam team can't see the work that you have done to try to contact site owners then they will likely send you a canned "Links to your site violate Google's quality guidelines" message, which means you have failed at reconsideration. It's possible that this is the reason why some site owners receive examples of unnatural links that are ones that they have tried to remove.

If the webspam team can't see your efforts, then they may assume you have just disavowed this link rather than tried to remove it.

Conclusion

Did Google make the process of applying for reconsideration of a site so difficult so site owners learn their lesson and never want to build unnatural links again? Perhaps.

If you're one of the unlucky ones struggling to get a penalty removed, don't give up! Some sites have had to go through several requests before finally succeeding, but I've yet to see one that was impossible! Hopefully these tips will help.

If you know of other reasons why a reconsideration request may fail, please leave a comment.

Google Penalties & ReconsiderationPure Spam: What Are Google Penalties & What to Do to RecoverWhy Google Won't Respond to the 5,000 Reconsideration Requests They Get Every WeekHow Long Should You Wait Before Submitting a Reconsideration Request?

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned MediaFeb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.Register early and save!*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Removing a manual unnatural links penalty can be extremely difficult. If you've gone through the process then you're likely familiar with the mixture of excitement and fear that comes with seeing "All Messages (1)" in Google Webmaster Tools after filing for reconsideration.

Will you see "Manual Spam Action Revoked"? Or will it be the dreaded, "Links to your site violate Google's quality guidelines"? Getting the latter message means that your reconsideration request has not been successful and that more work needs to be done in order to lift your penalty.

Unfortunately, Google doesn't give much direction when it comes to understanding why a reconsideration request was denied. They may give some examples of unnatural links, but not always. Sometimes absolutely no explanation is given as the reason for failure.

One thing I do on a regular basis is review the reconsideration requests for businesses that haven't been able to lift their penalty. Here are eight of the most common reasons why reconsideration requests have failed.

1. Not Enough Unnatural Links Addressed

This is, by far, the most common reason for a reconsideration to fail. It isn't enough to go after just the worst links, or even most of the unnatural links. In most cases, Google wants to see that you have identified close to 100 percent of your unnatural links.

Site owners in forums often proclaim things like, "I removed 3,000 links and Google still failed me!" In one of these cases, the site owner had indeed removed 3,000 links all from really low quality directories, bookmarks and comment spam. However, they still had hundreds of articles in existence that contained unnatural links to their site. The site owners felt that those links were natural because the sites who published the articles made an editorial choice to publish them. But really, it was a linking scheme. That site won't get their penalty removed until those links are addressed.

(As an aside, "addressed" doesn't necessarily mean, "removed". What Google wants to see is that you have identified which links are unnatural and that you have made a thorough attempt to get the links removed. And if you couldn't remove the links, then you have disavowed the links.)

If your reconsideration requests are repeatedly failing, it's worthwhile to have someone take an objective look at your link profile. There may be links that you feel are natural, but Google does not.

Sometimes, posting a question in the Google Webmaster Forumscan help. The volunteers there will give their opinion on your backlink profile. However, be warned that sometimes the responses you get in this forum can be a little snarky, and there is no guarantee that the answers will be completely correct. That said, there is a possibility that you can uncover links that you felt were natural, but really aren't natural in Google's eyes.

2. Not Enough Effort Was Made to Remove Unnatural Links

If you have a manual unnatural links penalty, it isn't enough to just disavow your bad links. Google needs to see that you have thoroughly tried to remove as many unnatural links as possible.

If you have the login credentials to directories and articles where you have submitted links, then log in and remove them. Tell Google in your reconsideration request that you have done this. It may even help to create a Google Doc spreadsheet that lists each domain and the date on which you went in and removed your links or deleted your account and also indicates the ones where you were unable to log in or had other difficulties.

If you don't control the pages where your links reside, then you need to do all you can to contact the site owner. Show Google in your spreadsheet that you have collected any email addresses you could find, the whois email address and also the URL of any contact form, Twitter page or Facebook page. Then, document the date on which you tried this form of contact.

I usually like to add additional documentation about my communications with site owners as well by entering things into my spreadsheet like, "Site owner said they will remove links but still has not been done - re-emailed," or "Site owner wanted $100 to remove a link - will disavow". This shows Google that you truly did spend time contacting webmasters.

I used to advocate showing Google a copy of every email that we sent. However, John Mueller recently said in a hangout that this was probably not necessary.

3. Not Enough Explanation

When writing a reconsideration request, you don't need to write a novel, but you do need to write enough to convince the webspam team that you have been working hard to remove as many unnatural links as possible. Hereis a Webmaster Forum thread where John Mueller says the following to a site owner who has failed at reconsideration:

One of the things we noticed was that your last reconsideration request was a bit short & basic, which when taken on its own, gave the team a wrong impression about the steps you've taken to resolve this issue on the web….My general recommendation for reconsideration requests would be to make sure that you're really submitting the right & relevant information there, so that it's clear to those processing the request what steps you've taken to resolve this issue: linking to the doc you mentioned is great, linking to a forum discussion is great, providing more context in the message directly is also very useful.

For more information on how to write a thorough reconsideration request, see "Google Reconsideration Request Guidelines & Example".

4. Improperly Formatted Disavow File

In many cases, Google will tell you, when you submit your disavow file, whether there is an error in your file.

In the past, if you had submitted a .rtf file instead of a .txt, or if you had forgotten to use the domain: operator when you wanted to disavow an entire domain, you would receive no indication from Google that your disavow file would not work.

Now, after you upload the file, if there is a problem with its syntax, you will receive an error message.

Even with these warnings, it is still possible for a reconsideration request to fail because of a disavow file problem. In one situation, a reconsideration failed and Google gave example links that the site owner had attempted to remove, and when unsuccessful, had put in their disavow file. Or so they thought.

It turned out that the disavow file was missing every domain that started with the letters K to Z. This was most likely because of a glitch in Google Docs that sometimes causes only 200 cells of a spreadsheet to be pasted when using the copy and paste function. Only the domains starting with 0-J were transferred to the disavow which meant that a huge number of domains the disavow file were missing.

Always double check that your disavow file contains all of the domains and URLs you want to disavow!

5. Disavowing on the URL Level Instead of the Domain Level

I almost always disavow links on the domain level. The rare exception would be for sites where we had an unnatural link from one page but I felt we could get natural links from other pages on this site. This doesn't happen very often.

Here's an example that explains why it's important to disavow on the domain level. Let's say I have a paid link embedded in a blog post of a site that is based on the WordPress CMS and that link exists on the following URL:

http://www.example.com/myarticle.html

The best way to disavow this link would be to include the following in my disavow file:

domain:example.com

But, let's say that I included the following in my disavow instead:

http://www.example.com/myarticle.html

Because this site is WordPress based, there is a good chance that the following links pointing to my site also exist:

Similarly, some sites may have the link available on a www page, a non www page and also an https:// page.

Disavowing on the domain level will take care of all of these links.

6. Google Docs Wasn't Used for Communicating Evidence

In this video, Google's Matt Cutts explains that the webspam team is reluctant to open up external files for fear of getting malware. He recommends that you keep everything in Google Docs.

It isn't a good idea to use an Excel spreadsheet to document your evidence. You can upload an Excel spreadsheet to Google Docs, but I do find that often these files are difficult to process through when viewed in Google Docs. If possible, it really is best to show your information in a Google Spreadsheet.

I have also seen failed reconsiderations where site owners didn't document their attempts at contacting site owners well. Instead, they gave the password to their Gmail account and invited the webspam team to view their Sent folder. It's very unlikely that a Google employee is going to do this, mostly for privacy reasons.

Instead, document everything really well in a Google Doc Spreadsheet. Include the email address, whois address, contact form URL, etc. that you used and the date on which you tried that form of contact. Make it as simple as possible for a webspam team employee to see your efforts.

7. Incorrect Google Docs Share Settings

If you're sharing a Google Doc with the webspam team, be sure that the share settings are not set to "Private", which is the default setting. I usually change it to "Anyone with the link can view".

In this Webmaster Forum post, a Google employee is describing possible reasons for this site owner's failure to get reconsidered. One of the things he says is:

Documentation is really good and can help when reviewing your site for reconsideration. Make sure that when you send in documentation that it's accessible, though. It looks like https://docs.google.com/file/….. hasn't been shared properly.

How tragic! Months of work can go down the drain if the webspam team can't see your documentation.

You would think that Google would simply let you know that they can't see your documentation. Unfortunately, it appears that they only have a limited number of canned responses they can give. It would be great if Google could add an additional canned response that told a site owner that there was a problem viewing their documentation and perhaps gave a checklist of possible problem areas.

8. Spreadsheet is Filtered

This is very similar to the previous point. If you have your Google Spreadsheet share settings set so that anyone with the link can view the document, this setting does not allow the viewer to use the filter function.

I have reviewed some failed requests where the site owner had accidentally left the spreadsheet filtered so that they could just see the links they were successful in removing, or in another case, for some reason they were looking at just their directory links. This means that webspam team member who saw your request couldn't see the rest of the spreadsheet.

Unless you have been really successful at removing links, if the webspam team can't see the work that you have done to try to contact site owners then they will likely send you a canned "Links to your site violate Google's quality guidelines" message, which means you have failed at reconsideration. It's possible that this is the reason why some site owners receive examples of unnatural links that are ones that they have tried to remove.

If the webspam team can't see your efforts, then they may assume you have just disavowed this link rather than tried to remove it.

Conclusion

Did Google make the process of applying for reconsideration of a site so difficult so site owners learn their lesson and never want to build unnatural links again? Perhaps.

If you're one of the unlucky ones struggling to get a penalty removed, don't give up! Some sites have had to go through several requests before finally succeeding, but I've yet to see one that was impossible! Hopefully these tips will help.

If you know of other reasons why a reconsideration request may fail, please leave a comment.

Google Penalties & ReconsiderationPure Spam: What Are Google Penalties & What to Do to RecoverWhy Google Won't Respond to the 5,000 Reconsideration Requests They Get Every WeekHow Long Should You Wait Before Submitting a Reconsideration Request?

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned MediaFeb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.Register early and save!*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

When Microsoft’s next-generation gaming console, the Xbox One, comes out on Friday, it will arrive with Bing built-in to power a range of searches from games to music to television programs — and searches you can do just by speaking to the Xbox. Today, Bing shared a preview of how this will work.

On the Bing blog, Microsoft highlighted some of the searches Bing will be able to perform, writing:

When we watched Star Trek decades ago, the idea of talking to a computer seemed like pure science fiction. Fast forward to the present and your voice has replaced the remote control for your living room with Xbox One, an all-in-one games and entertainment system with sophisticated voice navigation and natural language voice navigation powered by Bing and Kinect. In addition to combining games, music, movies, and live TV into one amazing device, every Xbox One utilizes the power of Bing and Kinect to make it fast, easy and natural to find, play, watch, and listen to whatever you want.

Bing makes finding the entertainment you want easier than ever on Xbox One. Whether your game, show, song or movie is in an app, on your console, or in our own Xbox Music or Xbox Video, the same instant search technology that powers Bing web search also brings your entertainment results together beautifully on your TV.

Bing went on to say that under-the-hood, it’s using Deep Neural Network technology, which Bing says is similar to how the human brain works, in order to deal with conversationally-posed questions. Again, from the blog:

Over the past few years, we�ve focused on overcoming limitations of previous voice experiences. To achieve speed and accuracy improvements, we focused on an advanced approach called Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). DNN is a technology that is inspired by the functioning of neurons in the human brain. In a similar way, DNN technology can detect patterns akin to the way biological systems recognize patterns allowing us to better understand natural language. With Xbox One, you can search using natural phrases. For instance, you can say:�I feel like watching comedy movies from the 1980�s”�Show me popular dubstep music”�I want to watch the movie Star Trek Into Darkness�I want to play Forza Motorsport�

The blog also shared an impressive demonstration video of some of the searches in action,�done by Larry Hyrb — “Major Nelson” — the director of programming for Xbox Live:

How well does it really work? We won’t know until we do some testing of our own with an Xbox One. Mine’s on order to arrive this Friday. But Bing already provides a very similar voice search feature for existing Xbox 360 consoles that have Kinect. Here’s a video of how that works, from when I tested it just after Bing voice search was introduced for Xbox in December 2011:

A key difference with the Xbox One is the “always listening” feature, where even if the Xbox One is off, it will wake if it hears a voice command.

Another issue is that while Xbox can search for television, music or other content, actually viewing or listening to this type of material will depend whether you have various subscriptions to services enabled to run on the Xbox platform, such as Hulu Plus.

With Pinterest being one of the most popular curators of content, it's no surprise that a single pin can pay big dividends to a website over time. Pinterest pins deliver two site visits and six pageviews on average, plus more than 10 re-pins – and this is can continue for several months, according to data from social analytics company Piqora.

"Half of site visits take place 3.5 months after the first pinning, while half of orders take place 2.5 months after the pinning," TechCrunch reported. Piqora CEO Sharad Verma said this is due to the fact that good pins are "frozen in time" and signify "a product worth buying."

But can you monetize that? Piqora says yes. In its research, Piqora came to the conclusion that the value of a pin on average amounts to 78 cents in sales. And it's not just ecommerce that benefits, with value extending to other types of publishers as well, the report said.

But that doesn't mean all brands are equal when it comes to their share of Pinterest ROI.

"Martha Stewart was getting 10x more traffic last year from Pinterest than from Facebook," Verma said. "So obviously there are cases where a publisher or retailer in a visual space like food, fashion or home decor is very likely to be getting way over two site visits."

With new features being released all the time on Pinterest, and its growing quest to monetize its business model, the future looks bright for Pinterest. In fact, if Verma speculated that it's likely Pinterest will evolve to become the "Google of the visual Web."

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned MediaFeb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.Register early and save!*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

In 2013 you made a decision to use video to connect with your customers. But now the year is almost through and you're still staring at your coworkers trying to understand what that means.

What kind of video should you create? What will be most effective to larger business goals? What types of marketing videos are out there for businesses? Does it all have to be professionally shot?

Below is a short list of video production types and how they can be used to increase awareness, build lead generation, and establish trust with customers.

1. Explainer/Tutorial Videos

For many brands, video starts here. It begins as a way to show a customer how to do something more efficiently – whether it's using a cool online tool, setting up a user account, or tiling their new bathroom in time for the holidays.

Explainer or tutorial videos allow customers to see, in action, what it is they're trying to accomplish to help them follow along at home. They can also be used to simplify hard concepts in a customer's mind.

These videos are great not only for establishing expertness and authority in a vertical, but for capturing the all-important "how to"- and "hack"-themed queries in the search results. For queries that are especially competitive, targeting these phrases via video is easier than trying to gain rankings via traditional organic. Why fight through a crowded front door when you can walk through the side door?

[Home Depot, your How To videos are super informative and great. They're also as boring as watching paint dry. You can do better than this.]

2. Webinar Videos

Whether you realize it or not, you’re probably already creating this type of content.

Maybe you're using Screenflow to record a software demo to walk your team through the new install. Or maybe you're using GoToWebinar to record a presentation intended for priority customers. Don't just sit on it. Post it and let your whole audience benefit from the information you're going over.

Content you only use once is content wasted. Always be on the hunt for additional ways to leverage the content you've created. Whether you've hosted a webinar to 20 customers or you're spoken on a webinar broadcasted to thousands, how else can you use that content?

3. Project Reviews

Product reviews are a staple in the world of corporate video, but they are so for a reason. Because they're effective.

According to a fourth quarter 2012 study from Invodo [PDF], 57 percent of consumers are more confident to make a purchase online after watching a product video. More confidence equals fewer returns, fewer sales calls and happier customers willing to share their experience with your brand.

There's also the famous stat from Zappos where simply adding video to its product pages had a sales impact of 6 to 30 percent. All they did was add video. Nothing else. Why wouldn't you do that?

4. Video PSAs

When it comes to evoking an emotional response, nothing does it better than video. Whether you're a nonprofit on a limited budget or you have some serious cash to spend, to use video is to use the combination of sight and sound to affect people in a very real way.

Below is a video PSA created for the New York Council on Problem Gaming as part of its KnowTheOdds gambling awareness campaign. Does NYCPG have tons of literature that speaks to the same things addressed in the video? Yes. Are the effects of problem gambling a mystery? Maybe not to some. But this video and the others created hit viewers right in the chest and the impact was real.

5. Culture Videos

Culture videos are becoming a dime a dozen, but the good ones still stand out. In age where consumers care just as much about why you do something as what you do, these videos help your brand rise from the pack and give consumers a more personal connection. Use them to show off your team, your secret sauce and the passion you have for your business (and your customers).

Need an example of a great culture video? Check out this one from the folks at Copypress.

Copypress Culture from David Snyder on Vimeo.

6. Testimonials

Whether it's from clients sharing how great it's been to work with you, from industry partners who have benefited from your collaboration or even your own team talking about what it was like to be part of your latest project, testimonials are a powerful way to establish social proof.

Even better, they're as effective shot on your iPhone as they are on a professional cyc wall. Snap them during in-store events, at tradeshows, or after the release of your latest project.

7. Animations

Whether you hire a motion graphics company or use a free too like Animoto, animation is another type of video to incorporate into your content marketing strategy. The reason many brands like animation is it gives you the creativity the brand is after, while still allowing a little distance if your CEO is weary of being too outspoken in his own skin.

Through animation and brand characters, a new dimension of your brand is created. Animation provides visual and emotional stimulation, as well as that wow factor your content needs to be remembered.

8. Instagram Video

Wendy's, charity:water, Ben and Jerry's, General Electric, and Oreo are just some of major brands that have jumped onto Instagram to create a splash via short-form video. In fact, 40 percent of the top 1,000 most popular Instagram videos are from brands. Instagram serves as a great outlet to show off the spirit of your brand, to create community and to inspire engagement around what you're doing.

Conclusion

With so many different ways to incorporate video into your content marketing, there's no excuse not to. Which flavors of online video have you tried?

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned MediaFeb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.Register early and save!*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

In 2013 you made a decision to use video to connect with your customers. But now the year is almost through and you're still staring at your coworkers trying to understand what that means.

What kind of video should you create? What will be most effective to larger business goals? What types of marketing videos are out there for businesses? Does it all have to be professionally shot?

Below is a short list of video production types and how they can be used to increase awareness, build lead generation, and establish trust with customers.

1. Explainer/Tutorial Videos

For many brands, video starts here. It begins as a way to show a customer how to do something more efficiently – whether it's using a cool online tool, setting up a user account, or tiling their new bathroom in time for the holidays.

Explainer or tutorial videos allow customers to see, in action, what it is they're trying to accomplish to help them follow along at home. They can also be used to simplify hard concepts in a customer's mind.

These videos are great not only for establishing expertness and authority in a vertical, but for capturing the all-important "how to"- and "hack"-themed queries in the search results. For queries that are especially competitive, targeting these phrases via video is easier than trying to gain rankings via traditional organic. Why fight through a crowded front door when you can walk through the side door?

[Home Depot, your How To videos are super informative and great. They're also as boring as watching paint dry. You can do better than this.]

2. Webinar Videos

Whether you realize it or not, you’re probably already creating this type of content.

Maybe you're using Screenflow to record a software demo to walk your team through the new install. Or maybe you're using GoToWebinar to record a presentation intended for priority customers. Don't just sit on it. Post it and let your whole audience benefit from the information you're going over.

Content you only use once is content wasted. Always be on the hunt for additional ways to leverage the content you've created. Whether you've hosted a webinar to 20 customers or you're spoken on a webinar broadcasted to thousands, how else can you use that content?

3. Project Reviews

Product reviews are a staple in the world of corporate video, but they are so for a reason. Because they're effective.

According to a fourth quarter 2012 study from Invodo [PDF], 57 percent of consumers are more confident to make a purchase online after watching a product video. More confidence equals fewer returns, fewer sales calls and happier customers willing to share their experience with your brand.

There's also the famous stat from Zappos where simply adding video to its product pages had a sales impact of 6 to 30 percent. All they did was add video. Nothing else. Why wouldn't you do that?

4. Video PSAs

When it comes to evoking an emotional response, nothing does it better than video. Whether you're a nonprofit on a limited budget or you have some serious cash to spend, to use video is to use the combination of sight and sound to affect people in a very real way.

Below is a video PSA created for the New York Council on Problem Gaming as part of its KnowTheOdds gambling awareness campaign. Does NYCPG have tons of literature that speaks to the same things addressed in the video? Yes. Are the effects of problem gambling a mystery? Maybe not to some. But this video and the others created hit viewers right in the chest and the impact was real.

5. Culture Videos

Culture videos are becoming a dime a dozen, but the good ones still stand out. In age where consumers care just as much about why you do something as what you do, these videos help your brand rise from the pack and give consumers a more personal connection. Use them to show off your team, your secret sauce and the passion you have for your business (and your customers).

Need an example of a great culture video? Check out this one from the folks at Copypress.

Copypress Culture from David Snyder on Vimeo.

6. Testimonials

Whether it's from clients sharing how great it's been to work with you, from industry partners who have benefited from your collaboration or even your own team talking about what it was like to be part of your latest project, testimonials are a powerful way to establish social proof.

Even better, they're as effective shot on your iPhone as they are on a professional cyc wall. Snap them during in-store events, at tradeshows, or after the release of your latest project.

7. Animations

Whether you hire a motion graphics company or use a free too like Animoto, animation is another type of video to incorporate into your content marketing strategy. The reason many brands like animation is it gives you the creativity the brand is after, while still allowing a little distance if your CEO is weary of being too outspoken in his own skin.

Through animation and brand characters, a new dimension of your brand is created. Animation provides visual and emotional stimulation, as well as that wow factor your content needs to be remembered.

8. Instagram Video

Wendy's, charity:water, Ben and Jerry's, General Electric, and Oreo are just some of major brands that have jumped onto Instagram to create a splash via short-form video. In fact, 40 percent of the top 1,000 most popular Instagram videos are from brands. Instagram serves as a great outlet to show off the spirit of your brand, to create community and to inspire engagement around what you're doing.

Conclusion

With so many different ways to incorporate video into your content marketing, there's no excuse not to. Which flavors of online video have you tried?

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned MediaFeb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.Register early and save!*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

"This video is going to generate a ton of views!" is an overoptimistic sentiment we hear too often. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, with 100 hours of content uploaded every minute, so it is fair to say that there's a very minute chance that your content will be noticed amongst the mountainous number of adorable cat and baby videos.

Although achieving a high number of video views is an improbable feat, it isn't an impossible one so long as you have the right plan. There are a few optimization steps you can take to empower your video with a fighting chance.

Content is the "All Powerful"

Creating great content is the key component to successfully optimizing your video(s). Without that, it's almost impossible to naturally generate good views and drive traffic to your channel.

If your goal is to obtain a substantial amount of views, make sure your content is either engaging, entertaining or informative, and most importantly, shareable.

Not all of your traffic will come from YouTube itself. For each channel, YouTube has a great analytics tool that allows you to keep track of all of the sources.

The better the content the more likely it is that other popular websites will share it. Additionally, staying on top of trends while creating your video is another helpful strategy, if people are searching for it, they might just find you.

Tagging and Titles

Tagging is essential; titles and tags are a major factor in making your videos more discoverable. YouTube currently has no way of understanding video content, so associating your video with text is an important way for you to rank for specific keywords. Include brand keywords in your tagging, and try your best to avoid irrelevant tags, even if it's tempting.

Due to the unfortunately common practice of massive buying of fake views, YouTube no longer prioritizes videos by volume of views for the front page feature. YouTube now values what they call "watch time."

You can think of watch time as video's version of bounce rate; what matters is how long a viewer stays to watch your video. A user who stumbles upon your video from a misleading tag or title likely won't stay and really engage with your videos – this accumulates a negative effect on your channel.

YouTube mentions the significance of Watch Time on their website :

"Watch Time is an important metric to promote videos on YouTube. The algorithm for suggesting videos includes prioritizing videos that lead to a longer overall viewing session over those that receive more clicks."

Google Trends is a useful tool to identify the relevant non-brand keywords that will help drive the most traffic possible to your video. It provides insights into what users are searching for on YouTube with options to source your suggestions from keywords, another YouTube video, or a diverse array of demographic information.

Closed-Captioning

Tags and titles may play an important role in indexing but they are not the only methods for associating text to your videos. Transcribing and uploading closed-caption files for all of your videos can also help your optimization efforts.

Transcribed videos rank higher since they allow access to information in multiple formats, depending on preference and need. You can increase ranking by having your video captions or transcript translated and uploaded to translated subtitles on YouTube. Watch this tutorial for more information.

Call to Action!

It's critical that your videos contain strong a call-to-action in descriptions and within YouTube annotations. When used correctly, annotations can improve engagement and viewership; but when used incorrectly, annotations can be distracting.

Annotations not only help keep viewers on the page, but also help keep them on YouTube. They remind people to keep watching and sharing.

Here's a good example of an excellent use of annotation and a call-to-action combined together from one of the top YouTube channels, Daily Grace:

Make sure they are placed in an unobtrusive section of the video. The best position for annotations is around the borders of the video as shown here:

Another way to incorporate a strong call-to-action toward engagement of your channel is through YouTube's new "Channel Trailer." This allows you to have a specific video that plays when a non-subscriber lands on your YouTube channel page. It's is a chance to give them an idea of what your brand is all about, let them know why they should subscribe and watch your videos, and provide them with an action they can take to continue watching.

Here's an example from H&M's YouTube channel:

Playlist URLs

Ensuring that videos are a part of a playlist can vastly improve your watch time . At the end of each playlist video, YouTube will automatically play the next video in the list. This will help increase your time-on-page and time-on-site metrics. If you have multiple videos you are looking to promote on social media platforms, make sure to share the complete playlist URL rather than the single video URL.

Summary

It's nearly impossible to gauge whether your videos will generate a large number of views or "go viral," but if you utilize these steps you can definitely increase your chances.

Brandon Calder from iProspect contributed to this article.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned MediaFeb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.Register early and save!*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Google has agreed to pay a settlement of $17 million to 38 U.S. states in order to end a probe into claims that it deliberately bypassed user privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser.

The issue came to light in February 2012 after it was revealed that Google had altered its DoubleClick advertising platform coding to circumvent settings in Safari that stopped third-party cookies from being installed. The practice had been taking place for nine months.

Installing these cookies allows Google to gather information on users' browsing habits by tracking their movements across the web, so it can serve them more relevant adverts.

The issue has already proved costly for Google, after an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) led to a $22.5 million fine for the firm. Now the U.S. states have also secured a settlement, citing laws relating to consumer protection and privacy laws.

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman said securing the $17 million settlement – of which New York will receive $899,580 – showed that public privacy couldn't be ignored by tech giants.

"Consumers should be able to know whether there are other eyes surfing the web with them. By tracking millions of people without their knowledge, Google violated not only their privacy, but also their trust," he said. "We must give consumers the reassurance that they can browse the internet safely and securely.”

Google has also agreed not to deploy similar code in future unless necessary to “detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues,” and to improve the information given to users about how it serves adverts to their browsers.

Google said that it was pleased to have reached a conclusion in the case and had already acted to ensure the issue doesn't happen again.

"We work hard to get privacy right at Google and have taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple's browsers," Google said in a statement.

This article was originally published on V3.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned MediaFeb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.Register early and save!*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

In the recently publicized Google Search Quality Ratings Guide, the handbook used by Google's quality raters, there has been much discussion and speculation over a section Google calls "Your Money or Your Life".

Google Search Quality Ratings: Your Money or Your Life

Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) pages are specific web pages that Google wants quality raters to hold to a higher "Page Quality" (PQ) standard than other types of web pages. They are called YMYL pages because they can directly influence your money or your life, hence the name. From the guide:

There are some pages for which PQ is particularly important. We call these pages Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) pages. They are pages that can have an impact on your current or future well being (physical, financial, safety, etc.). YMYL pages should come from reputable websites and the content should be created with a high level of expertise and authority.

Contrary to popular belief, Google didn't actually add the "Your Money or Your Life" to their Google search quality ratings handbook in version 4.2, as has been reported elsewhere. It was in the previous version, 4.1, dated March 29, 2013, which has been shared among SEOs for several months, but not publicly reported on. No changes were made specifically to the YMYL section between versions 4.1 and 4.2.

To learn more about exactly what the quality raters do, Google released the above video last year discussing specifically what the quality raters do and don't do in the capacity of their jobs. Do keep in mind though that this video was released 18 months ago, so things could have changed from Google's perspective.

Should You Worry About YMYL?

At first glance, you might feel like this new YMYL quality rating won't affect your website, because of Google's initial description that these are sites and pages that "have an impact on your current or future well-being (physical, financial, safety, etc.)". So naturally, people think of sites such as their banks or medical sites such as WebMD.com, the types of sites that we generally associate with either having high-security or very high quality and researched information. However, this actually impacts many more webmasters who might be running tiny ecommerce sites.

Google gives examples of what they see as types of YMYL pages:

Pages soliciting personal information, such as personal identification numbers, bank account numbers, driver's license numbers, etc., which could be used for identify theft.Pages used for monetary transactions, on which users might give their credit account or bank account information; for example any page that allows you to buy something.Pages offering medical or health information that could impact your physical well being.Pages offering advice on major life decisions, such as pages on parenting, purchasing a home, a vehicle, etc.Pages offering advice on major life issues that could impact your future happiness and finances, such as pages giving legal or financial advice.

The key part being "any page that allows you to buy something". Suddenly, YMYL affects a wide percentage of websites, and that is definitely well beyond what the first impression of a YMYL website would be. And raters are asked to determine whether a site should be considered a YMYL site as soon as they land on the page

Google also talks about how important it is that there are certain elements to a website, particularly if the landing page is considered a YMYL page. Specifically, they ask their quality raters:

To find the homepage of the website when they are rating an internal landing page.If the purpose of the internal landing page is consistent with the purpose of the homepage.Who is responsible for the content of the website?Who is responsible for the content on the page.Is there appropriate contact information?What is the website's reputation?Is the homepage updated and/or maintained?How to Get YMYL Pages Rated Highly

So what do webmasters need to do to ensure that if they have a site with pages that could be considered a YMYL page, so that they will be rated highly?

Again, while Google has publicly said that how quality raters rate your site won't have a direct impact on your rankings, but these types of things could be incorporated into the algorithm, if it hasn't already been done.

For best SEO practices, these are the areas the webmaster should be looking at, and making any necessary updates or changes in order to meet them.

Finding the Homepage

If someone is to land on your homepage, can they easily find your homepage in a single click? Traditionally, this is with the logo at the top of the page, but sometimes is simply a link that says home, such as with the breadcrumb setup.

What is the Purpose?

If someone lands on a randomly chosen internal webpage on your site, can someone make the assumption that the purpose of that landing page is consistent with the purpose of the homepage?

For example, if you end up on an internal landing page about NHL goalies, you would expect that the homepage would be something to do with hockey, or on the broader spectrum, sports. You wouldn't expect to end up on the homepage that would lead you to believe the entire website is about gardening.

Ensure that your message and purpose is consistent throughout the site

Who is Responsible?

Make sure that your footer has appropriate copyright information, so that greater could easily see the company behind the website. On content, you can go further and include things such as the author name from each article.

Appropriate Contact Information

Ensure the your website has a way for visitors to find out more information about how to get in touch with someone from the website, whether it's a "contact us" page, an "about us" page, or (in the case of a parent company) a link to a corporate site. But make sure that anyone who lands on your website can easily find your contact information.

Reputation

Do you have a reputation, whether good, bad. or ugly? If you have a great reputation, be sure to highlight that.

If your website has good reviews, you have great star ratings on review sites, you've done things like speaking at events or been somehow recognized as an expert, make sure that visitors to your site can easily find this information. Other things to think about include positive feedback and recommendations, as well as endorsements by experts.

If you have a new site, and you haven't built up a great reputation, Google cautions the raters that smaller sites might not have a lot in the way of reputation, but you definitely want to keep your reputation as high as possible.

Homepage Updated and/or Maintained?

This is an area where some websites fall down, because even though the website is actively updated and maintained, sometimes that might not be completely obvious from the homepage.

Make sure that your website carries the current copyright date, as it is easy to forget to update that footer to the current year, especially if you don't have a template that does every page of once.

Update the homepage with relevant current content, which can be something as simple and fast as putting up Halloween content in October or Valentine's Day content at the start of February. You definitely don't want to have a link to a Fourth of July related article front and center on your homepage in November.

While you don't have to make a point of updating something every single day, just make sure it's relevant to the time of year, and you keep your dates updated.

Summary

If you have an ecommerce site, make it a priority to ensure that if a quality rater was to land on any of your internal pages, that they could answer the questions or complete the tasks discussed above. Even if you don't have an ecommerce site or a site that could be considered a YMYL site, following the advice above is also good for usability and gives your visitors a better user experience.

You always have to go on the assumption that what Google is having quality raters look at could have an impact on the algorithm, whether now or in the future. Make sure you follow best practices as set out by Google, and that you meet all the specific things that Google is explicitly having their quality raters look for when dealing with a site that should held to higher quality than other web pages.

While one search engine is taking away keywords, Bing is letting you see more. Bing has announced Connected Pages, a feature that lets you claim your owned content properties and see how they're discovered in search.

For example, if you can use a this new tool to claim your Facebook business page, LinkedIn profile, app store pages, and other social properties in Bing Webmaster Tools. Once claimed and connected, you'll be able to see all kinds of information from inbound links to search terms for those Connected Pages.

To connect a page:

Sign into Bing Webmaster Tools and select Connected Pages from the Configure My Site section.Complete the URL path for the various media networks associated with your page on that network.Click Verify.

This may take a few moments, especially if you fill out multiple networks at the same time.

If verification fails, you'll see a message in red next to the Connected Page URL area. If everything is successful, you won't receive feedback and data will start showing up.

Make sure your connected page profile has a link to your site's URL or it won't be verified.

Bing states data will start to be populated for each of the Connected Pages within 72 hours. My Twitter and LinkedIn data, however, started to appear almost instantly. Once connected, you're connected for good.

Advertising network Chitika released a study today that showed how ad click-through rates (CTR) on a website vary when users come to that website from search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask and so on. According to the research, ad CTR was highest on a website when visitors came from Ask.com. Google trailed behind Bing and Yahoo in fourth position.

When asked if the high CTR coming from Ask was perhaps due to the demographic set of that engine, Mahima Badsra, Chitika data scientist and a lead author of the report said:

"While the precise demographics of the Ask.com user base are unclear, it is reasonable to assume that less tech savvy individuals are the heaviest users of the service due to the Ask.com toolbar controversy and ensuing backlash from the tech community.

"Additionally, as users of the search engine have consistently exhibited the highest CTRs within the Chitika network, it is likely that Ask.com's user base is, on average, different from that of Bing, Google or Yahoo, who exhibit different, but somewhat similar average CTRs."

Chitika reminded readers in the report to apply discernment to the data.

"In terms of search engine-referred traffic, Ask.com’s substantial lead in this area needs to be taken with a proverbial grain of salt, as its share of search engine Web traffic is only 2 percent within North America."

However, Chitika did say the data reveals something more.

"For the online advertising industry, this research supports the fact that search engine traffic tends to exhibit a higher CTR and should be considered when developing retargeting spend plans and advertising strategies as a whole."

One explanation of why search engines drive a higher ad CTR than direct traffic was that visitors going directly to a site likely know what they are looking for, said Chitika.

Chitika also said there are several other factors at play when it comes to understanding ad CTR on a website, like the fact that the average CTR is higher for Windows desktop users as compared to Mac OS X users, and that “new site users tend to click on ads at a higher rate versus returning site users.”

By understanding a website’s existing traffic, Chitika said website owners can test different strategies in order to maximize ad CTR.

Back in October, Chitika released research that showed how ad CTR on websites varied when users came to the website from Position 1 in the organic search results versus other positions. What it found was the highest CTR occurred when users found the site from Position 10 in the SERPs.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned MediaFeb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.Register early and save!*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

"This video is going to generate a ton of views!" is an overoptimistic sentiment we hear too often. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, with 100 hours of content uploaded every minute, so it is fair to say that there's a very minute chance that your content will be noticed amongst the mountainous number of adorable cat and baby videos.

Although achieving a high number of video views is an improbable feat, it isn't an impossible one so long as you have the right plan. There are a few optimization steps you can take to empower your video with a fighting chance.

Content is the "All Powerful"

Creating great content is the key component to successfully optimizing your video(s). Without that, it's almost impossible to naturally generate good views and drive traffic to your channel.

If your goal is to obtain a substantial amount of views, make sure your content is either engaging, entertaining or informative, and most importantly, shareable.

Not all of your traffic will come from YouTube itself. For each channel, YouTube has a great analytics tool that allows you to keep track of all of the sources.

The better the content the more likely it is that other popular websites will share it. Additionally, staying on top of trends while creating your video is another helpful strategy, if people are searching for it, they might just find you.

Tagging and Titles

Tagging is essential; titles and tags are a major factor in making your videos more discoverable. YouTube currently has no way of understanding video content, so associating your video with text is an important way for you to rank for specific keywords. Include brand keywords in your tagging, and try your best to avoid irrelevant tags, even if it's tempting.

Due to the unfortunately common practice of massive buying of fake views, YouTube no longer prioritizes videos by volume of views for the front page feature. YouTube now values what they call "watch time."

You can think of watch time as video's version of bounce rate; what matters is how long a viewer stays to watch your video. A user who stumbles upon your video from a misleading tag or title likely won't stay and really engage with your videos – this accumulates a negative effect on your channel.

YouTube mentions the significance of Watch Time on their website :

"Watch Time is an important metric to promote videos on YouTube. The algorithm for suggesting videos includes prioritizing videos that lead to a longer overall viewing session over those that receive more clicks."

Google Trends is a useful tool to identify the relevant non-brand keywords that will help drive the most traffic possible to your video. It provides insights into what users are searching for on YouTube with options to source your suggestions from keywords, another YouTube video, or a diverse array of demographic information.

Closed-Captioning

Tags and titles may play an important role in indexing but they are not the only methods for associating text to your videos. Transcribing and uploading closed-caption files for all of your videos can also help your optimization efforts.

Transcribed videos rank higher since they allow access to information in multiple formats, depending on preference and need. You can increase ranking by having your video captions or transcript translated and uploaded to translated subtitles on YouTube. Watch this tutorial for more information.

Call to Action!

It's critical that your videos contain strong a call-to-action in descriptions and within YouTube annotations. When used correctly, annotations can improve engagement and viewership; but when used incorrectly, annotations can be distracting.

Annotations not only help keep viewers on the page, but also help keep them on YouTube. They remind people to keep watching and sharing.

Here's a good example of an excellent use of annotation and a call-to-action combined together from one of the top YouTube channels, Daily Grace:

Make sure they are placed in an unobtrusive section of the video. The best position for annotations is around the borders of the video as shown here:

Another way to incorporate a strong call-to-action toward engagement of your channel is through YouTube's new "Channel Trailer." This allows you to have a specific video that plays when a non-subscriber lands on your YouTube channel page. It's is a chance to give them an idea of what your brand is all about, let them know why they should subscribe and watch your videos, and provide them with an action they can take to continue watching.

Here's an example from H&M's YouTube channel:

Playlist URLs

Ensuring that videos are a part of a playlist can vastly improve your watch time . At the end of each playlist video, YouTube will automatically play the next video in the list. This will help increase your time-on-page and time-on-site metrics. If you have multiple videos you are looking to promote on social media platforms, make sure to share the complete playlist URL rather than the single video URL.

Summary

It's nearly impossible to gauge whether your videos will generate a large number of views or "go viral," but if you utilize these steps you can definitely increase your chances.

Brandon Calder from iProspect contributed to this article.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned MediaFeb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.Register early and save!*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.